About the IUCN World Heritage Outlook

IUCN's World Heritage Outlook provides the first global assessment of the conservation prospects for natural World Heritage. By assessing every natural site with World Heritage status, it recognizes good conservation practice and supports the role of World Heritage sites in demonstrating excellence. It also identifies the actions needed to support sites that are facing threats, in order to improve their conservation outlook.

Based on expert knowledge, IUCN's World Heritage Outlook is designed to track the state of conservation of all natural World Heritage sites over time. Implemented by the IUCN World Heritage Programme and IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), it aims to provide reliable, transparent and independent information on the present situation and future prospects of natural World Heritage through Conservation Outlook Assessments.

The IUCN World Heritage Outlook is a proactive step to overcome existing and potential knowledge gaps through a methodological approach. The best available data from a wide range of sources and consultation with stakeholders is mobilized into a single IUCN hub for natural World Heritage.

The World Heritage Outlook also highlights the benefits that World Heritage sites provide to people, and projects supporting these exceptional places. It offers an early warning system helping to identify threats and take the necessary actions to achieve excellence in the conservation of our world's natural wonders.

Objectives

The IUCN World Heritage Outlook's main goal is to help improve the conservation of natural World Heritage sites and strengthen the World Heritage Convention through transparency and a proactive approach. Its objectives are to:

Recognize well-managed sites for their conservation efforts and encourage the transfer of good management practices between sites.

Track the state of conservation of all natural World Heritage Sites over time and raise public awareness of their importance for biodiversity conservation.

Understand and communicate the benefits of these sites for local communities and other stakeholders, for example livelihoods and ecosystem services.

Identify the most pressing conservation issues affecting natural World Heritage sites and support sites in addressing these issues.

Background

Natural World Heritage sites are internationally recognized as of the highest global conservation significance, including places such as the Serengeti, Great Barrier Reef and the Galapagos Islands. There are 238 such sites covering over 286 million hectares, which equates to less than 1% of the Earth's surface and over 8% of the land and sea included in protected areas worldwide.

Until the World Heritage Outlook was developed, less than half of all natural sites – those affected by serious conservation issues – were regularly tracked through joint reactive monitoring by UNESCO and IUCN, in its role as advisory body on natural World Heritage. The IUCN World Heritage Outlook fills the information gap on the remaining sites through proactive and more regular monitoring.

Facts and figures on natural World Heritage

There are 238 World Heritage sites with natural Outstanding Universal Value

203 classified as natural sites

35 mixed sites classified as both natural and cultural

Together, they account for 23% of all 1052 World Heritage properties

Natural and mixed World Heritage sites protect over 286 million hectares of land and sea and represent over 8% of the total area of all recorded protected areas (7.31% land and 9.51% sea).

Of all natural World Heritage sites, 111 are forest sites, 49 are marine sites and 16 are transboundary sites.

102 countries have an area designated as a natural or mixed World Heritage site.

72 in Europe and North America

74 in Asia and the Pacific

42 in Africa

42 in Latin America and the Caribbean

8 in Arab States

In 43 countries the extent of World Heritage sites is more than 10% of all protected areas.

To date, 18 natural and mixed World Heritage sites are on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

About IUCN

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is the world's oldest and largest global environmental organization. IUCN demonstrates how biodiversity is fundamental to addressing some of the world's greatest challenges such as climate change, sustainable development and food security.

IUCN was instrumental in founding the World Heritage Convention in 1972, as one of the two international organizations that first proposed the concept, and is explicitly recognized within the Convention as the technical Advisory Body to the World Heritage Committee on natural World Heritage sites.

IUCN's World Heritage Programme has supported the Convention since its establishment and mobilizes action across IUCN to promote natural World Heritage.

About IUCN WCPA

IUCN WCPA works by helping governments and others to plan protected areas and integrate them into all sectors; by providing strategic advice to policy makers; by strengthening capacity and investment in protected areas; and by convening the diverse constituency of protected area stakeholders to address challenging issues. For over 55 years, IUCN and WCPA have been at the forefront of global action on protected areas.

Disclaimer The contents of the Conservation Outlook Assessments are produced by IUCN and do not necessarily reflect the views of any contributing organization or individual.